


A Progress Report on Friendship

by ElizeLin



Series: 4851 Drabbles [1]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Awkwardness, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Irie Shoichi is bad at making friends, Language Barrier, Schoolkids are mean, Spanner pls leave Shoichi alone he's doing his best-, i guess?, if anyone knows what tags i should add please tell me I don't know what i'm doing, look i've never actually gotten better at tagging
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-28
Packaged: 2021-02-19 10:48:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22843057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElizeLin/pseuds/ElizeLin
Summary: A (possibly non-linear) collections of snapshots of Shoichi and Spanner's friendship throughout canon. I'm writing these chapters as I feel like it, so if I'm writing a new chapter that seems to take place before the most recent chapter, I'll likely reorder it such that it makes sense timeline wise, so do check the chapter list frequently! The chapters are made to line up to tell one cohesive story, but they can all be read as one shots if you'd like. Other characters will show up throughout the series where relevant.
Relationships: Irie Shouichi & Spanner
Series: 4851 Drabbles [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1642195
Comments: 3
Kudos: 8





	1. Goldberg Machine

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter is mainly character introductions, and their first meeting.
> 
> Mild translation note for the story, at one point it's mentioned that Spanner is called 'Suhana', which is more of a reference to the anime when Tsuna misreads his name when they first meet. In this case what Tsuna read was actually 'Sour Flower', which I can only assume is a reference to the entirety of Millefiore being a big flower pun. In this case it's being used as an insult, to call someone 'sour'.

The first time they had met, it wasn't a stretch to call it an accident. Shoichi had simply lingered around the entrance of the school for a bit longer that day. And yet, those meagre extra seconds he spent hanging around had caused an amusing spiral of events, like a Goldberg machine set up to drastically alter the future ahead. 

“Hey, what are you holding? Let me see.”

“...”

Shoichi turned around to the source of the voices to see a small group of students gathering in front of the gate, seemingly surrounding another student. No doubt it was another group of troublemakers again. Every school had them, after all, even if the one he attended happened to be a prestigious private school. Though it was obviously already better than most public schools, it still didn’t prevent eventual clusters of black sheep from showing up; they were all usually students from rich families spoilt too badly to be enrolled anywhere else. 

“Hey, can’t you hear us? Or are you actually mute, after all?”

With increasing agitation in their tone, one of the students shoved the blond they were cornering, causing him to stumble. Shoichi turned on his heels hurriedly, getting ready to quickly head off. It was none of his business after all, and he had no doubt that he would likely be their next target if he stood around for too long. A loud crash and raucous laughter rang out before he could scurry away, however, drawing the attention of the other students near the gate who were walking home.

“Eh! Your stupid toy’s broken now, what’re you going to do?” they laughed yet again, taking great pleasure in their torment.

“....ah, it broke.”

The minimal response and deadpan voice did nothing to alleviate the delinquents’ urge to belittle the other teen, only further aggravating them. With the ‘toy’ now on the floor and shattered into pieces, Shoichi could finally get a better look at what the offending students had been so insistent to see – and eventually break. The scattered debris on the ground seemed like the remains of some handmade metallic device from what he could tell, now nothing more than a mess of bolts and wires scattered on the ground. 

“...What the hell’s wrong with you, freak? Why don’t you say anything?” one of them shouted, obviously nearing their breaking point of impatience. “Screw this, let’s go home. It’s pissing me off to look at him.” they growled, kicking the remains of the machine around before pushing the student they had been pestering to the ground and walking off. The student barely seemed fazed by this, merely pushing himself off the ground and dusting off, watching the delinquents walk away with a blank expression. When the group had walked far enough, he turned and walked back towards the direction of the school without another word.

That was…. Something. One would have usually expected a middle school student to react more adversely when put into that sort of scenario. Shoichi would be terrified if he had somehow ended up as their target for the day, he knew. Assessing the fact that the danger had mostly passed, he couldn't help but to feel intrigued by the metallic remains that were on the ground. It wasn’t really something you’d see around very often, after all. Glancing around warily to ensure that both involved parties had since left the area, he hastily walked over to inspect the device more.

Surely enough, the ground was a mess of screws, bolts, wires, and…. not much else. Huh? That was…. odd. He pokes through the debris scattered on the ground to ensure that he hadn’t missed anything, confused. There was no PCB, or even a battery or any power source to speak of. Sure he didn’t know exactly what this was supposed to be, but it seemed to be awfully fancy for something which didn’t even work. And if it wasn’t meant to be functional, then why would there be wires in it..?

“What are you doing?”

Shoichi froze like a deer in headlights, immediately dropping the piece of metal he had just been holding as if it burned him. 

“I’m really sorry! I won’t do it again!” he panicked, “It’s not what it looks like, I was just-” he had rambled, finally pausing as he noticed who exactly had spoken to him. “Oh…. A-Aren’t you the student who was just here earlier..?” he asked, slowly getting up from the pile he was kneeling next to.

“Hm? Oh, yeah. Why are you apologising?”

“O-oh… well, it’s just that….. Umm….” he stammered, staring down at the ground, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly. “Err…. force of habit..?” he offered, glancing up to chance a look at what the other student looked like. When a pair of deadpan eyes met his gaze, he yelped and snapped his gaze back on the ground. The student didn't look Japanese at all, seeming much more like a foreign exchange student than anything. And... was he holding another robot? But didn’t the delinquents from earlier just….

The blond student continued to stare down at him, seemingly giving him a one over. After an extended awkward silence, he stepped around Shoichi without another word, walking away.

It took five seconds for him to notice that the student had walked past him already, and another three seconds before his brain caught up with his body for him to turn around and call out to the student.

"W-Wait!" he stammered nervously, immediately flinching back and cursing himself mentally. Why did he do that? The student stopped walking, turning around slightly to glance back at Shoichi. Without receiving a verbal response, he could only assume that it was his green light to continue speaking. "That thing you were holding earlier…. It was just a decoy, wasn't it? You left your real project in school so it wouldn't get damaged, and only brought it out after... they left..…" he said, slowly trailing off into incoherent mumbles near the end, eyes glued to the ground again.

Met with plain silence yet again, he braced himself for the worst and glanced up nervously to read the foreign student’s expression, only to be met with what seemed like an appearance of mild surprise. Well, given how deadpan he always looked, Shoichi figured a mild expression must've been a lot.

"You won't tell them, will you?"

"W-What? No, of course not! I just…."

The foreign student seemed to stare at him again, boring holes into his soul. The moment seemed to last forever, until he seemed to reach some sort of conclusion, the corners of his lips tugging up slightly.

"Thanks." he said, seemingly getting ready to walk off again.

"Wait!" he called out, not willing to let the conversation end there. "U-Um…. What's your name?" he asked lamely, anxiously tightening his grip on his bag straps.

"Well, I don't really have a Japanese name yet. My classmates just call me Suhana." he shrugged.

"Err…. Really? I don't think that's supposed to be a good thing…." Shoichi laughed nervously. "But, I wanted to know what your name was. Not what they called you."

"...Why don't you think of a better name, then?" he suggested. Despite being phrased rather brashly, it was apparent that the question wasn't meant to offend, but rather was more of a challenge to see what Shoichi would come up with.

"W-Well… Umm…" he stuttered, not having expected to be put on the spot like that. He glanced around and shifted from foot to foot apprehensively, thinking hard. "S-Spanner!" He yelled out suddenly, recoiling in surprise at their own sudden outburst. "H-How about Spanner? You're English, right? A-And I mean, you seem to make robots, so…." he trailed off yet again. The idea sounded stupider in his head the longer he thought about it, and was currently more than eager to find a nice hole to crawl into to save himself the embarrassment.

"Well, I'm British to be exact.” the student replied. “Spanner… It's not a bad name, though. Interesting." he seemed to muse. "And you? What's your name?" 

"M-My name's Shoichi! Irie Shoichi…."

"Shoichi, huh? Nice to meet you."


	2. Lollipop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the slightly (very) awkward encounter, both kids walk home together. RIP Shoichi

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't going to post this chapter til much later but I remembered that it was Spanner's birthday so,,,, here you go!!! ;w;

Both teens ended up walking home together after that incident. Between long bouts of awkward silence and even more awkward attempts at small talk, it didn’t take long for Shoichi to realise that they had managed to exhaust the extremely limited amounts of Japanese that Spanner had. From what he’d gathered from their small, fleeting fragments of conversation, Spanner had moved here from Britain not too long ago in pursuit of a higher education in Japan as they were currently leading in the world of robotics internationally. His family had also moved here recently for their jobs as well, so it was even more reason for him to study here. 

“Even if I don’t go to university here, Japanese culture fascinates me. It’s a win-win scenario either way.” he had managed to explain with a mix of broken Japanese and Google Translate between him and Shoichi.

“Really? That’s… Something, coming from the person who just got cornered at the school gate on their first week here.”

“Well, I don’t think that those students are a good…” Spanner paused, frowning as he tried to form a coherent sentence. “Representation?” he asked in English, glancing at his new friend to check if he understood. Receiving a nod of affirmation in response, he continued. “I don’t think they’re a good representation of Japanese culture, is all.” he rationalized, words an amalgamation of both languages.

Thankful that his many years of English classes that he was forced to take finally seemed to be bearing fruit, Shoichi pondered his response. 

“Well that’s one way to put it, I suppose,” he agreed, not too sure what to say. All their conversations so far had gone similarly, with rickety sentences often being interrupted by words that neither parties could translate. It made speaking even harder than it already was for both the awkward students, and they ended up walking home in silence.

When they had inevitably reached Spanner's home, the tense atmosphere had barely lifted; both students waved each other off in silence.

Being left to his own devices at last, Shoichi stared at the ground intently as he walked home. Recollecting the day's events, he buried his face in his hands with a high blush on his cheeks. Why had he done that? His mind zeroed in on all of the failed attempts to communicate, and felt his soul dying a little more every time he had stuttered. He had never been a particularly sociable person, nerves always getting the better of him when he had tried. He'd grown accustomed to his usual routine, going to school alone, eating alone, and then going home alone. It hadn't particularly bothered him, despite often finding himself looking on in envy at other students crowding around in laughter during their lunch breaks. 

Looking back at it now however, he realised it wasn't entirely out of the blue that he had attempted to talk to Spanner. He'd been dreaming of becoming a musician for as long as he could remember, but a great deal of his interests lied in engineering and robotics as well. With a school so focused on grades and not much else, it wasn't a big surprise for him to have been unable to find anyone else who shared that common interest with him. So that's why, when he saw the robot that had crashed onto the floor….

His sudden courage to stop Spanner to ask for his name had surprised even himself, in all honesty; especially since he had spent so much of his time burying his face into books and avoiding confrontation as much as possible. It was only then when he realised that he had made a critical mistake, however, suddenly pausing in his footsteps. He hadn't asked for Spanner's contact number, class, or even what year he was in. With a school as focused on studies as theirs, he knew without a doubt that it was unlikely for him to see the blond student around again, between their intensive classes and remedials.

And even if he did manage to get Spanner's contact number, what could he do with it? He didn't own a phone, so he couldn't text him even if he wanted to. Perhaps he could ask his classmates if they knew which class Spanner was in? Would that be weird? No, he'd probably sound like some sort of creepy stalker if he did, there was no way he was going to ask! Fretting over problem after problem as he made his way home slowly, Shoichi ended up collapsing into his bed, groaning in frustration against his pillow. Perhaps it was truly a hopeless situation after all, and all that effort was just wasted….

That was what he had thought, anyway, when he heard something clattering onto his desk in the morning. 

"...Eh?" the redhead blinked, confused. He had arrived to class early as usual, and there was close to no one in class yet. So what on Earth…?

"It's thanks, for yesterday." A familiar voice had drawled, and Shoichi snapped his head up only to see Spanner standing in front of his desk. 

Not having expected to see him this early in the morning — or at all, really — Shoichi screeched in surprise and recoiled, almost falling off his chair in the process. 

"S-Spanner?!"

"If you're not careful, you'll fall you know," he said, ignoring the fact that the few students already in class were now all staring at them.

Adjusting his glasses nervously as he regained his balance, Shoichi noticed that Spanner had actually dropped a lollipop onto his desk.

"What are you doing here?" he finally managed. "A-And…. 'thanks'? What do you mean? How'd you find my class, anyway?" He asked, starting to ramble again. 

"Don't speak all at once," Spanner sighed, gazing down at Shoichi and waiting for him to calm down enough before continuing. "You walked me home yesterday, right? This is thanks for that. And I asked my classmates what class you were from. You happened to already be sitting here when I arrived."

Shoichi slowly reached out to grasp the offered candy with trembling hands, finally starting to get over the shock of seeing his friend out of the blue. "Oh, I see…." he mumbled, breathing out a slow, calming breath. "You really didn't have to, though. I walked you back because I wanted to." he smiled sheepishly. "But, thank you anyway."

Spanner seemed satisfied enough with that response, nodding politely at the redhead before turning to leave.

Still unused to his new friend's tendency to leave during conversations unannounced, Shoichi fumbled over his words as he tried to call out to Spanner again. 

"W-Wait!" he had stammered, horrid memories of their awkward first meeting rushing back to him. "Do you… perhaps want to walk back together again today?"

"I don't have any more lollipops, if that's what you're asking."

"That's not what I meant!" he sputtered in incredulity, cheeks turning crimson yet again.

Spanner let out a quiet chuckle, seemingly amused. "I know. I'm just kidding." he smiled slightly. "Sure. I'll see you outside the gate after school again, then."

From then on, it had become something akin to a habit, or some sort of ritual for them to wait for each other outside the school gates after classes had ended to walk home together. The first few times it had happened, their short bursts of conversation were always interrupted by horrible mistranslations and misunderstandings, more time spent on Google translate rather than actual conversations. As time went on, however, Spanner's Japanese had started to improve with leaps and bounds, as well as Shoichi's English. They both still struggled to smoothly converse in one language or the other at times, but idle chatter was much easier to partake in than it was before. They spoke of their own home lives and shared their personal interests and hobbies, exchanging recommendations of video games and manga alike. They stayed away from talk of anything too technical in relation to robotics, however, the exact terms used for each language too complicated and specific for them to speak of just quite yet. In their time spent together, Shoichi managed to learn more about Spanner as well, discovering that they were indeed in the same grade.

"Maybe you could help me with my homework sometime, then. I struggle to read some of the questions still. You're a straight A student, right?" Spanner asked.

"What?! It's nothing impressive like that…." Shoichi had dismissed, laughing nervously. 

"You won't help me, then?" he pouted disappointedly, sounding very much like a kicked puppy.

"N-No! I mean, of course I will! It's just……" he trailed off, unsure as to what to say. "Okay, okay! I get it, don't look at me like that!"

"That's great, then. With Shoichi's help, I'll definitely be able to pass my classes now." He smiled.

"Geez, now you're just putting unnecessary pressure on me!"

Watching his overly-anxious schoolmate panic and fret over the exact details of his impromptu agreement to a tutelage, Spanner couldn't help but to feel a facsimile of a grin tug at the edges of his lips. Perhaps school wouldn't be as dull as he had thought, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it!! I didn't really like the way this chapter went tbh, I'm not good with writing slice of life sort of things, or anything that's not pure angst tbh. Doesn't help that both characters are awkward as fuck,,, Please leave a kudos or a comment if you enjoyed it though!!! They make me really happy /w\ I love these two characters to death, so do expect more content of them soon!! (If my motivation doesn't die that is,,,) Next chapter will likely be more on language barriers between them, so expect it to take a bit longer since I'll be neck deep in research, haha. See you around! ♡

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a kudos and/or comment if you liked it!!! I spent,,,, a lot of time thinking about this QwQ
> 
> I didn't tag it because I'm not sure if I'll ever write that far, but this is intended to be a 4851 fic at some point. I'm not really the best (nor do I particularly enjoy) writing romance however, so this will be a..... very, very slow burn if I ever do complete it. This is merely a compilation of some of their interactions I would assume could probably be linear with canon, this first chapter taking place before Shoichi meets Lambo for the first time. (I did take some creative liberty with writing that they met in middle school since canon didn't specify if they met in high school or otherwise). Since I have no end goal for this fic, I cannot confirm where it will go, as I am only filling in the gaps in canon with my own imagination. If I do get far enough however, do expect it to take a turn towards 4851 haha. The 4851 tag is almost completely empty everywhere, and I!!!! Plan!!! To change that!!!!! These two dumbass mechanics have been my favorite characters ever since I started the series, and over a decade later after I've started taking up robotics myself, I've found a newfound respect for them lol. Please give them more love TwT


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